Cold Nights
by sapphire-child
Summary: When the nights begin to get colder, Charlie finds yet another excuse to be chivalrous and to do a bit of shameless flirting while he’s at it!


Title: Cold Nights  
Original post date: 13th December 2005  
Spoilers: season one  
Summary: When the nights begin to get colder, Charlie finds yet another excuse to be chivalrous – and to do a bit of shameless flirting while he's at it!  
Disclaimer: Do you know how hard it is to make all of my disclaimers different and witty after a fashion? Man it's hard. So just so you know, Lost isn't mine. And stuff.

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It had been cold down on the beach for several nights now and Claire's jumper just wasn't warm enough anymore. She was also becoming increasingly paranoid about Aaron and was piling blanket upon blanket on him every night so that he didn't catch cold.

Charlie however was very blasé about the weather.

'It's not that cold is it?' he said one night, bewildered by Claire sitting huddled in front of the fire in her blanket, the only part of her that was visible being her face. 'Or am I just more used to it than you?'

'Probably,' Claire's teeth chattered. 'You're from England after all and it's not exactly tropical there is it?'

'But _this_ is tropical,' Charlie glanced about. 'You'd think it'd be warm even when it's cold.'

Claire stared at him.

Charlie frowned.

'And there's something just not right about that sentence…'

'Look I'm okay,' Claire interrupted defensively. 'I've got the fire and my blanket and my jumper – however inefficient it might be at the moment…'

'Your jumper?' Charlie's face quirked into an expression of concern. 'Isn't it warm enough? Is that why you're cold?'

Claire sighed. 'Yes but I don't want you to run off and…'

'Well why don't we go looking for another one then?' Charlie interrupted, brushing off Claire's protests. 'We could go searching through all those clothes that nobody's claimed tomorrow if you'd like – or maybe I could just grab something of mine for now…'

'Charlie!' he looked up at her, startled.

'Yes?'

'I'm okay,' Claire said slowly then continued hastily when she saw the look of incredulity on Charlie's face. 'Really! I'm okay, I don't need another jumper.'

'Do you want my blanket?'

Claire rolled her eyes. 'No Charlie but thank you.'

Charlie nodded silently; Claire could scarcely see him through the darkness.

'I think I might go to sleep.'

'Okay,' Charlie stood up. 'I'll see you tomorrow I guess.' He waited for Claire to settle herself down comfortably before saying good night.

'Night Charlie,' Claire murmured.

She listened to his footsteps fade away and shut her eyes, trying to relax enough to go to sleep. Her feet felt uncomfortably like twin blocks of ice and she rubbed them together futilely, wishing she had enough energy to reach for a pair of socks.

_Crunch._

Claire froze; somebody was walking towards her through the sand. Through slitted eyes, she saw a dark figure step forward. She tried to stay still in case they realised she was still awake but then she felt a blanket being draped over the top of her and she knew beyond all doubt who it was.

Relieved, she let her eyes fall shut as Charlie tucked the blanket in around her. She assumed once he had done this he would go but quite suddenly his hand was on her cheek brushing her hair away. Claire sucked in a quick breath when she felt his breath on her face and then he pressed his lips against her cheekbone for one brief moment. Charlie seemed to sense something was amiss because he hesitated for a moment longer, Claire hardly daring to breath, and then he disappeared as quickly as he had come.

The next night was colder still and Claire shivered uncontrollably as she pawed through her own clothes – skirts, flimsy tank tops…and then her hand brushed something thick and woollen. Frowning slightly, Claire unfolded it and discovered that it was a misshapen jumper knitted in dark green wool. Trying not to smile too much, she looked it over and then found a small piece of tape at the hem.

_Mite be 2 big but best I cud do. Luv C_.

Claire peeled the tape off and pulled the jumper over her head. He was right, it was too big for her but it was so _warm_… She pulled the sleeves down so that they covered her hands and hugged herself, snuggling into the thick wool.

'You like it then?' Claire turned around to see Charlie grinning at her, leaning against a tree.

'Hey,' Claire trotted forward and got up on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek. 'I thought I told you not to worry about getting me a jumper?'

Charlie shrugged, his eyes sparkling as Claire pulled him back to her blanket and they both sat down. 'Well I couldn't very well let you freeze now could I? I wouldn't have anybody to talk to.'

Claire laughed as Charlie scrutinised his handiwork.

'It's a bit big though – I thought it would be,'

Claire ignored this. 'Is this what you've been doing all day?' she queried. 'Sifting through clothes to try and find me a jumper?'

Charlie looked faintly embarrassed at this and one of his hands jumped to his hair, which he began to twiddle nervously. 'I might have.'

'Well thank you,' Claire laughed. 'It's lovely.'

'Not very fashionable though,' Charlie teased and Claire swatted his arm.

Somewhere in the jungle, a cricket set up its nightly chorus and the two of them fell into companionable silence.

A chill breeze ruffled their hair and Claire shivered despite the jumper. Charlie eyed her shrewdly. 'Are you still cold love?'

Claire shook her head. 'I'm fine. Just the breeze is cold – even with a jumper on.' She smiled wanly.

'Well hang on…' Charlie shuffled a little bit closer and went to put his arm around her shoulders but Claire flinched and he pulled away immediately. 'Sorry. Sorry. That was a bit much I guess…'

Claire squirmed guiltily. 'No it's okay,' she reached a hand to gently touch his knee. 'I just wasn't expecting it.' She laughed suddenly and Charlie glanced up sharply. 'Sorry, it's just that it was so close to the yawn-and-then-they-put-their-arm-around-your-shoulder-in-the-middle-of-the-movie-thing.'

Charlie looked incredulous and then disgusted. 'You think I would ever revert to something as amateur as that?' he looked disgruntled when Claire merely shrugged. 'I have _better_ methods thank you very much.'

'Oh do you just?' Claire teased. 'And what are they exactly?'

'I'm not going to tell you,' Charlie grinned sideways at her. 'What if I decided I wanted to use them on you at some point?'

'Are you using them now?'

Charlie chuckled then glanced up at her, an impish smile on his face. 'I might be.'

Claire grinned back and scooted a little closer to allow him to put his arm around her shoulders.

'Well if you are, it's working.'


End file.
